How does it feel to be a captive pawn? (Cait-Plot)

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

3075.08.02 | probably around mid to late afternoon | somewhere you don’t want to be (a cave system far from weyr or hold)

Disclaimer: This thread contains violence combined with minor innuendo (torture).

Tiv’s head felt like someone was playing drums in it after having lit the inside of it on fire. The only thing he could think was that he might be hung over, but he didn’t remember drinking anything the night before, and certainly not enough to make him feel like this. Shellcrack, he’d never even been seriously hung over before, he had a head for spirits, rather like his father, that way.

Shaking his head, T’vax blinked and looked around. There was no light, absolutely none, so he had nothing to focus on to try and help steady him. There was something not right about that…

Tiv shook his head again. The lack of light wasn’t particularly bothersome. He had lived in many lightless places, cave systems that his father dug out and converted to meeting places. Something wasn’t there though, something that should have been…

Absently, Tiv reached out to the side. Nothing met his hand but air, and he pulled it back, rolling over and trying to see anything in the darkness beyond his reach. There should have been something there, something…

“Ribbon,” Tiv whispered. The puppy, now a little over four months old, always slept beside him, on his left side. This was odd. Idly, Tiv wondered if he was still drunk. Certainly there was a fuzziness to his thoughts that suggested he might be, and he wasn’t as worried as some part of him insisted he ought to be.

Slinesteth probably knows where she got to, he thought sleepily. Trying to gather his focus, he reached for Slinesteth’s mind. Slin, where’s- Tiv’s thought broke off in mid-sentence. Slin wasn’t there! Not asleep, not even injured and drugged, just not there!

Struggling to martial his thoughts, Tiv pushed himself up, frantically lowering the barriers he had so painstakingly erected around his mind, tearing down even the most inner of his shields as he kept feeling an emptiness around him, kept reaching for dragons only to find that they weren’t there.

He didn’t realize that he was panting, close to a panic he hadn’t felt in Turns. Silence, silence, no matter how far he pushed his reach, searching for another, he received no answer except for the steadily building wooziness and fiery pain behind his eyes. Finally, he collapsed back down, gasping for breath, his chest heaving as if he’d been running, and, even under the numbing effects of whatever he’d been given, and he knew that “been given” was the right term too, he felt a steadily building dread. He might not know where he was or how he’d gotten there, but he did know one thing; he was not going to like what happened here.

[Cait]

Something was poking her in the chest. Dav groaned and then started awake, certain that she'd managed to crush one of her collection of white pets in her sleep. As she reared back though, there was a shooting pain that originated from the back of her head and caused little white spots to dance before her eyes as though to some merry little jig. Aside from that, everything was blacker than pitch and she blinked her watery eyes in an exaggerated fashion just to be sure she'd actually opened them. Reaching up, she carefully felt around at the back of her head until she found a damp, matted section of hair and probed deeper. With a yelp she pressed again and wince. There was a decent sized lump on her head and it had obviously bled enough to soak into her hair.

Quickly she did a quick inspection; lump on head, dry mouth, weird taste, certainly dizzy...no firelizards, puppies or, she discovered after a terrified moment, no dragons.

What in the name of Faranth had happened? Where was Niekolgoth? Was he being so sullen that he wouldn't even respond to her mental probes? The last thing she'd remembered had been sneaking around with T'vax in the outter reaches of the lower caverns. Something had happened, that much was obvious. She could feel the tears threatening and drew in a deep breath, trying to calm herself. Rolling forward onto hands and knees, she began to explore her surroundings in the darkness.

Eventually her hands found a wall and she followed it around, determining that she was in some sort of cell. She even found a doorway of sorts but it was blocked. It was on her second--or maybe her third?--circuit that she heard the heavy breathing and froze though a high pitched whine escaped her. Was there something in the cell with her? In the pitch black was there something stalking her, waiting to pounce? Little did she know she'd paused beneath a fissure in the naturally formed, low ceilinged space that opened into another similar room where her friend and near constant companion was having a bit of a panic attack.

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

T’vax heard something, a high-pitched whine that briefly, ever so briefly, pierced the air around him. He tried to focus on it, but it wasn’t sustained, and then everything was dark and silent once more. He used to play games in the darkness, pretending he could see something, or that he was a great brave dragonrider. But he was a dragonrider now, and that made this no better, indeed, it made the silence worse, because now he had to contend also with that horrible absence, that there was nothing where for over one and a half Turns there had been another piece, another person that filled all those small holes in his tattered soul.

He had no clue how he had gotten to this place. He remembered something, hearing or seeing something and going after it, but then, nothing. Nothing that is, except this awful fuzzy, painful, on-fire and about to explode from pressure feeling of his head. Gradually, his breathing slowed, as exhaustion replaced panic. His heart slowed and quieted, and he thought he heard footsteps, but then they stopped, and he started to roll over, seeking a more comfortable position.

A echoing, scraping sound was next, like metal dragged across rock. Blinking his eyes, he stared at the sight in front of him. It was impossible, totally impossible. She’s escaped! I’m a rider! We’re all free, the Weyr came and saved her. None of it mattered. There, in front of him, was Sayurith, mouth open wide to bite him. She was gone then, replaced by A’mir, sitting chained in his cell like an unruly animal, he looked up, lunged forward, then vanished, though the painful grip on his shoulders and arms did not, and the man in front of him, face only now visible as T’vax’s eyes adjusted to the light of the torch, was one he’d hoped never to see again.

“Well, this makes for an interesting reunion of family members, don’t you think?” asked Tiberax Noixay, looking down into his son’s face with a sneer.

T’vax tried to twist, tried to pull away from the people behind him, but he couldn’t do anything other than twitch weakly.

“Yes, you’re quite right,” Tiberax said with fake understanding. “This is hardly the place for something so… special. After all, I am hosting this thing, and a proper host always makes sure that his guests have something to enjoy. Particularly if they are related.” Tiberax was smiling, watching his son attempt to writhe out of his men’s grips the way a man might watch the struggles of a fascinating insect.

“Bring him,” Tiberax commended, turning and walking out, ignoring the guards who were dragging his son between them.

Tiv tried to brace himself against the door, but all he got for his troubles was a blow to the back of the head that left him limp and seeing white flashes. Finally, the men hauling him stopped and threw him to the ground.

For some reason, the impact cleared Tiv’s vision, though the young man immediately wished it hadn’t. Surely it would have been more merciful. He knew this room, knew it well, though he’d always been on the sidelines, forced to watch, rather than in the middle. He wasn’t twitching now, his muscles were too tight from fear, his breath coming in short, shallow gasps. Had his eyes been visible, they would have looked black from fear dilating the pupils.

[Cait]

There was a horrendous sound of stone scraping against stone, of muffled voices and then suddenly the pitiful hole Dav had found herself in was flooded with light; blinding her just as effectively as the darkness. Shrinking away from the brightness that stabbed at her eyes and caused them to water. Blinking furiously, trying to adjust to the change in light, Dav looked around, eyes wide and heart racing, searching for the creature with the heavy breathing but she was alone. Something moved in front of the light source and Dav snapped her head towards the entrance, regretting the abrupt movement as a throbbing pain took up residence behind her eyes.

Squinting against the light that burst like a halo around the tall man and cast his features in shadow, it took her longer than it should have to recognize the figure and what she could see of his features. Her heart soared and tears of relief spilled from her eyes as she uncurled from the ground and hurled herself across the cell, arms wide to latch onto the young man in a hug. "Tiiiiv!"

Just before she would have collided with the man, he stepped aside and Davquil went sprawled. As she blinked against the bright light of the glows and tried to comprehend, a cruel chuckle sounded above her and a voice that was familiar and yet entirely alien to her sneered. "Well aren't you just the affectionate sort. I'm sure my sniveling brother puts you to good use. I'd take you up on your offer but we can't keep them waiting. Get her up and bind her hands!" The last was snapped and then next thing she knew, she was being hauled up roughly by her arms which were then twisted painfully behind her back and secured with rope, a sack was shoved over her head, and she was dragged off, too stunned and confused to put up much of a fight. Why had Tiv done that? She was sure that man had been her friend but that voice had been so cold.

She lost track of how many turns they had made; or had they made any at all? What seemed like forever and all at once no time at all--trapped in her own mind as she'd been--she was hurled uncerimoniously forward and unprepared and with no way to break her fall she went sprawling painfully and cried out. Tears poured freely from eyes that were wide beneath the blinding sack and Dav curled in on herself, letting out a startled scream as hands with bruising grips hauled her up again and hauled her a few more feet before pushing her down to her knees. She whimpered again, that same tremulous sound that had escaped her before.

The sounds around her were muffled but she could hear someone breathing nearby, or was it something? Someone was speaking and she could barely just make out the words above the sound of her own heart beating loudly in her ears.

"Oh good, you brought company. Come, introduce us to your friend." Tiberax waved his hand and Taver stepped up behind Davquil and ripped the sack from her head with a flourish and a devilish look in his pale blue eyes.

Davquil's hair was a mess, her face streaked with tears and her eyes were shut tight as she sat shaking on her heels. When she made no effort to look around or even move, Tav scowled and grabbing a handful of her hair, pulled her head back roughly. Dav's eyes shot open, bright with tears and fear and there he was, plain as day. It was Tiv...but there was something not right. The look that contorted his unblemished face and the lack of warmth in his pale eyes...unblemished face.

"Oh good, you do have a brain underneath all that hair." He shoved her head forward then and Dav's wide, dark eyes locked on the sprawled figure a few feet away. She lurched forward, squirm and tugging at the rope that bound her hands only to be pulled back painfully by the hand in her hair. Again that cruel laughter sounded. Only slightly cowed, her entire focus on T'vax, she lurched forward again.

"TIV!" Her voice was hoarse from tears and fear and the frantic need to make sure that he was alright. She tried to get awkwardly to her feet but Taver pushed her back down and laughed again, twisting her hair roughly and making her cry out.

"Is she as eager in bed, I wonder? Come now little rider, there is plenty of time to play." Tav stooped down, twisting Dav's head and whispering the later in her ear. Her eyes strained to keep Tiv in her sight and she didn't quite comprehend the words of man that was not Tiv but had his face until he flicked his tongue out and licked her cheek from jawline to the corner of her eye and snickered as she shuddered.

"Come now son, aren't you going to introduce us to your lovely friend?" Tiberax donned what would have been a cheerful grin on anyone else but given the circumstances...

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

The thud of approaching feet only caused Tivax, not T’vax now, a scared boy rather than a rider, to press himself into the floor, as if he believed, and in his state of mind it was entirely possible that he did in part, that if he tried hard enough he could simply become part of his surroundings and thereby escape. A cry of pain, accompanied by the muffled thump of a body striking the floor caught Tiv’s attention, and he started to shift his weight back and raise his head, only to be driven to the floor by a boot between his shoulder blades.

Tiv lay frozen, his forehead and the tip of his nose pressed against the floor, not daring to move as his hands were wrenched behind him and bound together. His heart felt like it was trying to break free from the cage of his ribs, his breathing, shallow gasps, really, failing to even begin to satisfy the burning need of his lungs for air. There was someone else breathing hard nearby, but without raising his head Tiv couldn’t see anything.

Another thump and a scream and then Tiv’s head was yanked up by means of a quick jerk of his hair and forcibly turned so that he could see the hooded figure to his left, kneeling in front of his twin brother.

“Oh good, you brought company. Come, introduce us to your friend.”

Tiv started, flinching and casting frightened eyes in the direction of that voice, just in time to see his father wave a hand. There was a sound, like dragonwings unfurling with the rage in Tiv’s breast. Slinesteth was there than, and Tiv stared. Everything was ok, it had all just been another dream…

Tiv’s head was shaken by his hair, and when his vision settled again, he was staring at Davquil’s tear-streaked face.

He’d thought it couldn’t get worse, thought that there was absolutely nothing more that his father could do to him. He’d been wrong. For a long moment he just stared at that face, unheeding of everything around him. His mouth opened, but no sound came out. He simply stared as his brother shoved Dav forward, and her eyes met his own.

“TIV!”

Tiv stared, watching Dav’s struggle take place in a kind of horrific slow motion. Then Taver’s cruel laughter, joining that of many of the other men in the room, cut the silence off.

“Is she as eager in bed, I wonder?” Taver asked, making the spectators, most of them anyway, laugh again. He stooped and whispered something in Dav’s ear, then licked her cheek.

Tiv lunged forward. He actually made it a couple steps before a pair of clubs collided with his chest, knocking him to the ground on his back.

A bark of laughter rang out, quickly silenced by Tiberax’s falsely polite voice.

“Come now son, aren’t you going to introduce us to your lovely friend?” Tiberax asked.

“Keep your hands off her!” Tiv shouted back, shoving himself to his feet before being slammed back to the ground by someone behind him.

Tiberax’s smile didn’t even falter. “Tsk, tsk, Tivax. Here I thought I’d taught you better manners than that. After all, we did go to considerable difficulty to extend an invitation to this little party to her too, the very least you could do is tell us who she is. Your mother would be most disappointed in you.”

Tiv’s only response was to clench his fists and glare at his father.

Tiberax sighed theatrically. “So you’re not even going to share the story of how you met her. Not even going to tell you dear father that much. Of course, you have been being rather impolite since this started. Perhaps you need a refresher course?”

Tiv flinched, pulling his shoulders forward as if they could somehow act as a shield.

“What, not interested?” Tiberax asked. “Oh well, I guess we can always just ask her.” He turned to face Davquil and sketched a mocking bow in her direction. “Well, I’m sure you can think of something that we’d like to know, given sufficient motivation. Taver, if you would?”

Taver grinned and pulled Dav’s hair straight down, then, casually, held a torch to the ends until they were actively burning.

“Stop!” Tiv shouted, throwing himself forward again. He struggled wildly in the grips of the two men who had seized him once more, fighting to reach his brother and drive him away from Davquil.

Tiberax glanced over his shoulder at Tiv. “What am I going to do with you Tivax? Haven’t you learned not to interrupt yet?” He nodded at one of the men around the room, who immediately came forward, twirling a dull-red glowing knife.

“One more out of turn word, Tivax, and you can try and talk with a burned tongue again. You do remember the last time, right?”

Tiv opened his mouth, and the man pressed the knife against the side of his head, just above the start of the hairline. Whatever Tiv had intended to say was buried in a pained scream, followed by a choking sob as the man lifted the knife.

[Cait]

When Tiv errupted, surging forward only to have two large and quite frightening men slam him back into the ground, Dav began to squirm again trying to pull free of Tav despite the painful tugging on her hair. When the man spoke again she only vaguely registered that she knew the voice and barely heard the words, her entire focus was on her friend. Tiv shouted and surged to his feet again only to be taken down once more and she let out a frustrated screech as Tav jerked her back again, never allowing her to get to her feet.

Breathing heavily, her dark brows furrowed, she finally tore her gaze away from T'vax long enough to look upon the man who could only be her friend's father. It was unmistakeable, the relation. He was going on and on like this was some friendly family gathering and they were sitting down to dinner. Tiv had never really talked about his family before and now there was no question about why. That this man would do something so heinous to his own son made her blood boil and slowly her fear began to evaporate.

Then Tiv's father turned to face her and she narrowed her eyes as he bowed to her. She was going to claw his eyes out, she was going to rip out all his hair and...her uncharacteristically violent thoughts were cut short as Taver tugged on her hair again and the heat and dancing light of a torch came far too close. "What are you doing?!" Her eyes went wide and she tried to pull away but it was no use. The oils that she used in an attempt to make her hair less frizzy caught fire and the sickening and overpowering smell of burning hair invaded the room. She tried to throw herself backwards in an attempt to smother the flames but Taver pressed a booted foot into her back to keep her upright. The heat was unbearable and the smell moreso but before she could attempt to roll to the side when Tiberax's words sliced through her panic and she saw red.

Tiv's scream galvanized her into action and though the flames search and scorched the flesh on her neck causing it to blister, and her tunic caught fire as well, she lurched to her feet and before any of the men or Taver could react, ran head long with a scream that was equal parts pain, fear and rage at Tiberax. She'd almost made it to the man when one of the men with clubs stepped in front of him and slammed the end of his club into her gut. She crumpled to the ground making a strangled keening sound. More than half her hair was gone and the back of her neck and shoulders where her tunic had been charred and burned away. Through clenched teeth as she rolled onto her back, putting out the tunic at the very least she managed to whimper. "Leave him...Tiv?" The last came out as a whimper.

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

“Oh how sweet,” Tiberax cooed. “You really do like him. Well, since you ask so nicely, I guess we can leave my dear impolite son alone for a while.”

He watched Dav writhe for a moment. “Oh, those burns look quite uncomfortable, there must be something around here we can put on them.” He paused, letting laughter echo around the room, then snapped his fingers. “Of course, why didn’t I think of it before. Where is that bucket?”

Another laugh echoed around the room, and several of the spectators made way for a large bucket, filled with water and large chunks of ice.

“No!” Tiv shouted again, bucking madly against the restraining arms of the men holding him.

“Tivax. Do you perchance remember what I said about speaking out of turn?” Tiberax asked, not even glancing back at his son as one of the men forced the boy’s mouth open so that another could almost delicately run the red-hot tip of the knife down the middle of the boy’s tongue.

“Besides, it’s important not to let your lovely friend’s burns go untreated. It’d be a shame to spoil her looks.”

Even as Tiberax finished speaking, the two guys with the water bucket upended it over Dav. Steam rose from the girl’s body in billows, accompanied only by the hissing sound of its formation and the cruel laughter of the people in the room.

When the steam dissipated, Dav looked, if anything, even worse. Most of the burns were cracking, creating instant gashes down her back and on her shoulders.

Tiberax shook his head. “It is such a shame that you had to fall for her son,” he commented. “No real endurance, this one. Of course, you were never that strong either, so perhaps it’s a better match than I thought at first. However, if you are so determined to be together, you really should match.”

Glancing over at Taver, Tiberax smiled. A singularly disturbing smile, one which Taver responded to with a grin of his own. Grabbing a hank of Dav’s hair, he dragged her over until she was directly in front of Tiv.

“Well, bro, I hate to do this, but father’s right. You and her just simply must match.” he tapped Dav’s right cheek with a knife, ignoring Tiv’s, now silent, struggle to pull free and attack.

Looking up, he met Tiv’s eyes with another laugh. “Or, since you object so strongly to that,” he began, raising the knife and holding it above the middle of Dav’s head, “what if you reflect each other instead?”

Taver slid the knife down, tightening his grip and arching Dav backwards as he slowly slit her left cheek open, mirroring his brother’s scar exactly.

[Cait]

As Dav lay twitching in agony, the flames all but smothered, her eyes remained fixed on her friend. She'd never had a friend like him before. She couldn't hear--or maybe she couldn't comprehend--what was being said around her but when T'vax began to pull wildly at the men holding him, she stirred, reaching for him. Her lips parted on a hoarse scream when the went at him with a red-hot knife again and Dav tried to push herself up, so focused on crawling towards Tiv that she didn't notice the men with the bucket until she was suddenly doused with water that made her go numb and her charred flesh sizzle and crack. Sputtering and coughing, she gasped for air.

Why was this happening? She couldn't even imagine any of her family doing this to her much less even hitting her. BUt her mind was centered on one thing. She had to protect Tiv, she had to. He was her best friend and if she could just get to him, help him then everything would be fine. Wouldn't it? Whimpering she tried to pull herself across the floor only to have Taver--Tiv's own twin!--grab hold of what was left of her hair and haul her across the floor, right up in front of her friend. With another tug she was hoisted up until she got her knees under her and through the blurred and dimming vision, she saw Tiv. She lifted a hand, reaching for him, her mind trying to sluggishly comprehend what was going on. Just as she thought she might reach him, Taver viciously twisted her hair and caused her to gasp as he pulled her head back and her vision of Tiv was replaced by the unblemished and so very similar face of Taver and then briefly the flash of a knife before pain blossomed along the left side of her face.

Black spots danced across her vision as Taver released her and she collapsed on the floor, blood smearing on the stone floor. Even near passing out from the pain and the sheer mental torment, she reached for Tiv. Taver sneered and strode towards his brother, knife still marked with Dav's blood and brought the heel of his boot down on the girl's fingers, grinning as she cried out as bones crunched and broke. Turning his attention to his brother, he twirled the blade slowly in front of Tiv's face and stooped down slightly. "Father's right; no real endurance...tell me though, she any good in bed? I plan on paying a little visit later, might even let you watch if you're good."

Tiv let out a howl of rage and strained towards Tav suddenly, breaking free from his restrainers just long enough to swing at his brother and land a glancing blow on his jaw. The men behind the young Chromerider, went at him with clubs and took him down. Taver, pale eyes wild with rage, grabbed hold of T'vax by the hair as the larger men captured his arms again. Wrenching his head up, he got very close, such similar eyes boring into one another. "You shouldn't have done that, brother." Taking the knife, still wet with Davquil's blood, he motioned for the men to hold him still and then carefully he slid the blade along the path of Tiv's scar, reopening it.

"You won't get to watch now; but I'll make sure she screams loud enough for you to hear it." Shoving T'vax away, Taver stalked towards his father and when the man nodded, he turned and snarled. "Put them back." Tiberax nodded for the men to comply then watched as his disappointing son and his little wench were hauled out of the room and brought back to their cells. He'd have to make sure that the girl didn't die from her wounds; Taver had perhaps gotten a little over zealous but there was nothing wrong with that. He'd have Keeya look after the girl for a bit.